Some of you have been in touch to ask what’s happening with the SingStar Store and following is the official reply from SingStar Studios. Looks like things are getting back on track.

‘SingStar fans have been asking when the SingStore will be populated with more songs.

Our original vision, as outlined in early preview coverage of SingStar, was to have more than 350 songs available on the SingStore.

We are working hard to increase the volume of content as quickly as possible. Eighteen new tracks will be live in the SingStore from 18th January (15 English and 3 Spanish tracks) including songs from KT Tunstall, David Bowie and Blur. This will be followed by an update the week of 4th February, including tracks from The Editors and MC Hammer, and we will be updating the SingStore with new content twice monthly thereafter.

Not good enough.
Where is the apology for the inaccessible network and the offer of compensation?
18 songs then updates twice a month?
How many songs a month? It could 1,2,20 anything.
Why did they tell us this originally? They must have know well before launch they wouldn’t have the 300+ songs but let us believe it still would.
This statement is only a reaction to the fury of the customers, if we hadn’t raged against them they would have told us nothing at all.

“Singstar fans have been asking” - Nice one, we were all absolutely livid you moron.

It’s taken them too long to make this statement, I don’t go for this stuff myself but know some VERY disappointed fans. At least something is happening, whatever the barriers are in getting more songs up, they need to do the work in my opinion, expectations have been set and product sold - the startup splash screen quotes “hundreds” - not good

Not to mention, this staement was released on Eurogamer long before it was on here.
Is this not the official voice of Sony?
This situation has degraded beyond repair I fear.
I won’t download any of their songs until they come up with a free compensation package.

[...] Do you play SingStar and wondering where the music is…SingStar Studios is going to help you out by releasing Eighteen new tracks on the SingStore from 18th January (15 English and 3 Spanish tracks) including songs from KT Tunstall, David Bowie and Blur. This will be followed by an update the week of 4th February, including tracks from The Editors and MC Hammer, and we will be updating the SingStore with new content twice monthly thereafter.Â Source: Three Speech [...]

Jesus Ton Capone, you are never happy are you, you ask for communication and you get it, yet you still complain. What did you actually expect, a personal apology with a full refund and 3 free games thrown in?

This statement might not taste so sour if they addessed the fact that official ads for the game (e.g. on the SCEE press office site, even on the official PS3 site you see when you open your browseron PS3 if you havent changed it) STILL say 300+ songs AT LAUNCH including the back catalogue.

Yes there must be problems, and yes they have finally said SOMETHING, but do they not care that potential customers are seeing these ads, booting the game up, going to the Singstore and then the cycle of people complaining on forums and petitions just starts again.

Guess they still havent found anyone for the Singstore admin job still being advertised on the website of the recruitment agency that deals with all SCEE positions?

No just a general apology would have gone some way to repairing the broken trust.
The communication only came about as a result of Singstar owners going off on one, otherwise we would still be in the dark.
And Yes, some form of recompense is called for.
Hope these answers make you happy.

Thanks to everyones efforts on forcing them to speak! Updates twice a month sounds good, but we just want communication, tell me, if they are releasing 18 new tracks today why oh why in the statement from them yesterday can’t they just list the tracks that will be available!!

how difficult would it have been for them to upload the entire PS2 back catalogue with free download to all those people who owned these previously? Seriously underestimated the public demand for “new” songs. MC Hammer, KT Tunstal and David Bowie exist already, come on people lets get the good vibe back - Artic monkeys, oasis, foo fighters, JT, even bloomin Girls aloud would give it an up to date feel

Whilst I agree it would be nice to get an official line on “why” the delays in getting songs out and “why” they can’t put the entire back catalogue of PS2 songs on the store …

… given the songs that are on the singstore and the ones that have been newly added today, it gives a few strong clues….

…Licensing…

… Sony can’t just dump the entire back catalogue from the PS2 on as they know doubt obtained licenses from the artists to put the songs on the discs and not to distribute the songs electronically.

There are plenty of songs to download for Blur and Supergrass (added in all 3 updates) so it’s safe to assume those artists are quite happy for their songs to be butchered by the crooning populace, well that and they’ve no doubt agreed on their “cut” of the profits.

Others may not be so happy, may want a bigger cut of profits, etc… hence we’ve not seen the likes of Artic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs etc..

I’m sure when the distribution mechanism is proven and licensing deals are ironed out in general, we’ll see more varied bands hitting the stores.

Still, an official word to prove or disprove this from Sony would have saved a whole heap of grief and flaming.

Personally i’m off home later to download some new stuff to butcher, after all it is Friday night

I have to say though, i’d love to know why we’ve got Love Train by Wolmother as a track but no Woman !! gutted.

Excellent News!
Well done Tony Nibbles for your campaign. As a big SingStar fan http://www.PlayThree.net is proud to have highlighted the issue, I even emailed SingStar executive producer Paulina Bozek (she didnt email back, but I guess the response through ThreeSpeech is good enough!) Communication is key. ThreeSpeech maybe you could be the FIRST stop for release dates for upcoming PSN titles ?!

If Sony knew they were going to hit problems with getting 300+ songs on the store at release, then they should never have released it, because doing so, has probably pissed off more people, than it would have done, if they just came out and said, “Sorry, but due to licensing issues, we won’t be releasing Singstar until we can at least have the 300+ songs we promised at release”.

Personally, I think if Sony are still falsely advertising Songs(Pictures in the game itself that portray artists that we don’t even have available - Beyonce for instance) and other songs as people have mentioned that are sung in the Intro, then Sony really are open to being Sued, because it’s all False Advertising.
Maybe they should just be reported to the Trading Standards people because they are bringing people into the game, without being truthful with there advertising, with some great songs people would like to sing, but with a lot of shit songs that we end up being stuffed up with on the Discs.

Your points may well be correct and it is probably a sound assumption but….
How on earth do Sony of all people manage to overlook this licensing fact? They have recording artists on their books for crying out loud and should know the industry inside out. If they don’t then it’s gross incompetence of the highest order to shout their mouth off about 300+ songs without knowing the ins and outs.
If they did know about this but released it anyway then they are guilty of cheating their customers in the most dispicable manner.
Either way it is not good, not good at all.

Ideally i’d like the opportunity to download songs which are available on other country’s versions of singstar, for instance the US version of singstar pop has lots of songs i’d love to have……that would be a massive step forward

[...] Last month’s 18 added songs: Include 15 English and 3 Spanish tracks. These were songs from KT Tunstall, David Bowie and Blur. This was be followed by an update the week of February 4th, including tracks from The Editors and MC Hammer, and Sony promises to be updating the SingStore with new content twice monthly thereafter. So after the above 67 new songs for March, look for more song due in April 2008, according to Threespeech. — Songlist via Joystiq [...]